An Honorable Man

November 18, 2002
Sex and spitefulness often give way to love in Rogers's novels (A Reckless Encounter, etc.), and this salacious Civil War romance is no exception. Like Scarlett O'Hara, Cameron Campbell is a spoiled Southern belle used to getting her way, so when Captain Jackson Logan, a handsome rogue suspected of blockade running, spurns her, she vows to hate him forever. Six years later, he returns to her family's Mississippi plantation to deliver a message to her senator father. Much to Cameron's dismay, Jackson decides to stay for a few days. While Jackson and Cameron wrestle both in and out of the sheets, Cameron's sinister brother, Grant, kills their father and seeks to auction off all of their slaves, including Taye, Cameron's freed mulatto companion. Grant is as unrealistic as villains come, and Cameron can be hard to stomach as well, particularly when she throws one of her many temper tantrums. Although Rogers is well known for her classic 1970s bodice-rippers, the forced seduction formula will be off-putting for some readers, as will her trite dialogue ("If only you would let me take you into my room, I could show you the moon, the stars...."). But the story moves at a fast clip, and some readers may hold out until the end simply to see Grant get his just deserts.

November 15, 2002
Cameron Campbell has led a sheltered life as the daughter of a Mississippi senator living on the family plantation, Elmwood, but now she has to try and forget her first and only love, Captain Jackson Logan. She was only 17 when he entered her life and promptly broke her heart; she is now, six years later, an improper, still unmarried southern belle when he returns to Elmwood with news of the impending Civil War. Cameron's father plans to send his daughter north, and he himself prepares to side with the Union, knowing that his son will side with the South. Captain Logan has a mysterious mission at Elmwood concerning the senator, but Cameron cannot see beyond her impression of a man who seeks fortune above all else. Logan, meanwhile, realizes that he has never forgotten Cameron, but his secret mission makes it difficult to communicate his true feelings. Rogers has filled an old-fashioned romance with modern thoughts about women, slavery, sex, and an updated version of the South.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)